Voting With Your Feet

In time for tax season, many of us are probably grumbling about how much tax we have to pay. Sure, the headline rates for the US may not seem all that impressive, but when you add up state, local, payroll, and federal tax all together, the marginal rate can be in excess of 50%! That’s higher than the top rate in the UK. On top of that, we don’t even get free health care, efficient public transportation, or cheap schooling. Think of having to pay out of pocket for those mandatory things as an extra tax on the little guy.

Could it be then that the US is the most heavily taxed country in the world? Something to think about for sure.

One example from recent times is the St. Louis Rams moving from St. Louis to Los Angeles. While some employees will enjoy the weather, others may bemoan the pay cut that they’ve just received from the change in state tax systems. That’s not to mention the higher cost of living in California. Strangely enough, so many people try to live and work in California (high supply), compared to the cold and dreary Midwest, that salaries for comparable professions are higher in the Midwest even before cost of living adjustments.

It’s no surprise then that I’m planning to leave California as soon as I am able.

In any case, while we could stay and try to fight the man through lobbying or voting, it’s hard for a single person to make a difference. That’s where we can vote with our feet. Just like Tiger Woods did and what Phil Mickelson pondered about doing, we can leave high tax locales and move to low (or no) tax ones. The name of this game is geographic arbitrage, which I go into detail in my book on wealth.